Moldmaking Molding silicone and polyurethane- which brand do you like to use?

I'd also like to know this, for the moment I will try a local brand but I may change in the future because their resin is cream colored.

Do some of you know how to color resin? I'd like my dolls to have a unique color, not the usual Volks-like one.
I'd love to make them in pastel colors too so I'll need a white base.

 

The resin I use is a local brand and it's also cream colored too! Are you by any chance buying it at feroca ninive?

The local store I shop at has both its own brand and smooth on, but since local brand it's like 1/3rd cheaper I haven't considered changing it. I haven't tried to sculpt full doll parts, just simpler stuff, so if the results aren't what I like I might change. At the same store they sell pigments for resin as well, you need to measure them perfectly because they're very concentrated. They're super cheap in comparison, 3 bucks and you could dye like 100 liters of resin.

 

I didn't get it yet, I contacted the shop and I'll go sometime this week or the next. It's Prochima's Sintafoam.
The cost is about 20 euro for 1kg, I don't think it's expensive but they also don't sell other brands here so I don't really know.

 

I'm still early in the game. I was given one of those Alumilite starter kits which has their Quickset silicone and AlumiRes casting resin (which is a light tan in color - not what I wanted but good enough for testing). The quickset silicone is good, but isn't very flexible. As I wanted to start with my girl's head (why I think starting with the most complex part of her is a good idea, I don't know).

I've done a bit of playing around and have just completed the mold(casting today!!! yikes!!). The silicone I used was the Alumilite high strength 3, simply because of the severe undercuts and dealing with the hollow. I wanted to see if I could make this a two part mold. This stuff is very stretchy and so far, has handled things well. However, I don't know how you would get by without degassing it first. I have a vacuum pump and a pressure pot (Harbor Freight and Amazon were doing big sales) and it seemed to take about 30 minutes with the vacuum pump going to get it to stop looking like boiling bubble gum:-)

Cost wise (and I guess this is only relevant to folk based in the USA. The Hobby Lobby 40% voucher reduces the price of a 1lb of silicone to $19 (including Texas sales tax). Still not especially cheap and I am fast learning how to make my mold as silicone efficient as possible.

 

30 minutes to degass???? not a good idea. You only need 2-3 minutes at a maximum vaccuum your chamber can reach for the air to evacuate. After that the silicone emits some chemicals, which are essential for hardening. It looks like air, but it's not. And from what I have heard, your silicone may never harden if you degass it for too long.

I've used dragon skin 10. It's good only for pressure molding, vacuume doesn't do a thing to it. Very stretchy and cut-resistant.
Mold Star 15 is soft, quite stretchy, it has long pot time and air bubbles go out so easily! I had only micro bubbles left in it when the layer is thick (like more than 5 cm) and you do not use vaccume or pressure. But I have problems with my head mold now as the inner part of the mold seems to be deforming a bit each time under it's own weight.

I used SmoothCast 305, 326 (clear), Task 2. They all worked pretty fine, but too fast for me. I initially wanted Task 3, ordered it, but the shop mixed it up and sent Task 2. Anyway, I believe, any resin from these variants needs pressure to cure into a beautiful solid piece.

 

I`m using Easy Mold, if it can be considered as a brand. Cheap and cheerful.

 

For molding I'm using MoldMax 30, or SortaClear (this silicone is translucent, although it is less flexible than MoldMax and prone to tearing). For casting, I'm very partial to Smooth-On 326 Colormatch, because it makes adding pigments really easy. I'd love to have a resin that is a bit more porcelain looking, but since I live in the Netherlands, I'm using what I can get.